The quote database

There is no doubt that a blizzard has a bewildering and numbing effect upon the brain of any one exposed to it.

The beginning of wise living lies in the control of the brain by the will; so that the brain may act according to the precepts which the brain itself gives.

A person is idle because his thoughts dwell habitually on the instant pleasures of idleness.

No man is so formed that he can be left entirely to himself, to go his own ways; everyone needs to be guided by a preconceived plan, and to follow certain general rules.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that a man cannot forget,--but not himself, his own character.

Who does not see from all this that man has gone astray, that he has fallen from his place, that he seeks it with disquiet, that he cannot regain it?

Mere intelligence is still not courage, for we often see the cleverest people devoid of resolution.

There are persons who possess the keenest perception for the most difficult problems, who are also not fearful of responsibility, and yet in cases of difficulty cannot come to a resolution.

Your life will never be a straight path.

If I have set my admiration on the poor body, I have given myself up to be a slave; if on my poor possessions, I also make myself a slave.

To state the problem is to recall the truth that no single principle can answer all of life's complexities.

At times I would rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul, accompanied with a faint beam of hope, that flickered for a moment, and then vanished.

There are times when the future seems thick as a fog; you sit and wait, hoping the mists will lift and reveal the right path.

Joy deserted my heart, and for a long, long time I lived in doubt, anxiety and fear.

To reform one's maxims is nothing: it is but to change the title of the book. To learn new habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life.

Man is only what he becomes--profound truth; but he becomes only what he is, truth still more profound.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation

But the time came when I awakened from this as from a dream.

A night's sleep, the sovereign remedy for the smaller vexations of life, had no effect on it.

Acquire a method of perceiving how all things change into one another.

In rest you go beyond these limits, and beyond what is enough; but in action you do not fill the measure, and remain well within your powers.

Make trial how the life of a good man succeeds with you, the life of one who is content with the lot appointed him by Providence

You are going to make mistakes — own them, make amends, and move on. Guilt and regret kills many a man before their time. Turn the page, get off the ride.

I have never had any trouble turning the page in the book of my life.

The ultimate effect of parasitism is always a paralysis of the will and an inability to compel oneself into any course of action for the moment unpleasurable and exhaustive.